1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to tool lanyards. Particularly, the present invention relates to tool lanyards attached to a user's wrist.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Persons engaged in repair and construction type work ordinarily have to use a variety of hand tools to perform tasks. The work commonly takes place over machinery and/or on platforms at various heights above the ground.
People engaged in such work have many reasons to avoid dropping tools. For instance, a dropped tool must be picked up before a person can continue using it to complete a particular task. This entails wasted time and energy in climbing down from a considerable height just to pick up the tool. Oftentimes, the dropped tool will land in a place out of the user's sight. In those circumstances, a search must be undertaken to locate the tool. This further increases the amount of wasted time in retrieving a dropped tool.
Another, more serious concern with the use of hand tools (i.e. hammers, screw drivers, pliers, ratchets, levels, flashlights, tape measures, etc.) occurs when working in overhead situations. If dropped, the hand tool could injure personnel and/or damage equipment located beneath where the work is being performed. A dropped tool exposes persons located below to potential injury or even death if struck by the falling tool. A dropped tool also has the potential to cause damage to machinery located below. The damage can result in many ways. For instance, the damage can be due to the impact of the falling tool on the machinery or parts. Where machinery is operating at the time, the falling tool may come to rest in the path of moving components causing damage to the components and/or necessitating that the machinery be shut down.
While without doubt, persons using hand tools try to maintain sufficient grip on the tool, conditions are practically certain to arise in which tools will be dropped. Moisture from sweating frequently makes it difficult to maintain the necessary grip on the tool handle. Muscular fatigue can cause a person's grip to loosen without consciously realizing it. In reaction to an unexpected slip, the person may unconsciously drop the tool in grabbing for some support structure to prevent or cushion the fall.
Many attempts have been made to overcome the hazards of dropped tools. Makeshift lanyards, such as those made with rope and/or string and fastened with duct tape, have infamously been used to create wrist lanyards and tethers to keep a specific tool attached to the user's arm or wrist.
More conventional tool lanyards used to tether hand tools are typically adjustable and are made of a rope or string. The size of these lanyards can be adjusted to the user's wrist with the use of a cord lock that slides along the rope. This style of lanyard can be uncomfortable to the user and must be replaced often due to lack of wear resistance inherent in rope.
Another style of adjustable lanyards is a lanyard manufactured with webbing sewn to hook-and-loop fasteners and that include a hardware loop (or equivalent) that can be used as a cinching point to tighten the lanyard around the user's wrist. A problem with such a style of lanyard is that, if not used properly, the lanyard requires two hands to fasten it to the user's wrist or one hand used to wedge it against the user's body while using the other hand to cinch it around the user's wrist. In either situation, these lanyards are very cumbersome to install on the user's wrist.
Other styles of wrist cuff tool lanyards are manufactured from a stretch nylon fabric or equivalent that will slightly expand to allow the wrist cuff to expand and slide over the user's wrist. The expansion ratio of the stretch nylon cannot be too excessive because weight applied to the nylon while the lanyard is in use will tend to expand the wrist cuff and cause the wrist cuff to slide over the user's hand. With this style, multiple sizes of wrist cuffs must be made available to fit a range of wrist sizes.
Examples of prior art lanyard devices are disclosed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,123 (1988, Kassal et al.) discloses a releasable strap system. The releasable strap system includes the combination of a hand strap and a device strap. The hand strap is removably connectable around the wrist of a hand and between two of the five fingers of the hand, leaving the hand free for normal use. The hand strap includes two portions, a straight wrist portion and a curved looped portion. The curved loop portion has two ends connected to the straight wrist portion at separated intervals. The straight wrist portion is wrapped around the wrist of the user, threaded through a ring, tightened, and then folded back and locked in position. The device strap is removably connected to the hand strap for supporting an item not held in the user's hand and for quick release from the hand strap.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,899 (1992, Larkin et al.) discloses a tool restraint apparatus. The tool restraint includes an elongate elastomeric tether line with respective first and second flexible straps mounted to each end. The first web strap is arranged for selective securement about a user's wrist and includes a first and second end that includes first and second hook-and-loop fastener patches that permit securement of the hook-and-loop fastener patches together. The second web strap is similarly constructed like the first web strap.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,156 (1992, Braun) discloses a tool wrist strap that has a band, a looped cord, and a clench bead on the cord. The band is made of a flexible elastic fabric material and formed by an elongate strip having opposite ends attached together. The band is adapted to fit loosely about a person's wrist. The looped cord is composed of flexible inelastic material and has a looped end portion and a pair of opposite ends attached to the band adjacent to one another. The clench bead is slidable on the looped cord and produces sufficient friction to hold the bead in any given position along the cord.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,210,406 (2012, Moreau et al.) discloses a tool lanyard wrist cuff. The tool lanyard wrist cuff includes a fixed, closed loop band having a first mating portion of a fastening mechanism fixedly attached to an outside surface of the closed loop band. There is an adjustment tab extending from the fixed, closed loop band where the adjustment tab has a second mating portion of the fastening mechanism. The second mating portion is configured for releasable engagement with the first mating portion when the fixed closed loop band is folded onto itself positioning the adjustment tab over and onto the outside surface of the closed loop band. A lanyard retaining component is integrally formed on the outside surface of the closed loop band.